Martian Child
by Menno Meyjes
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DVD details
Actor: Amanda Peet, Bobby Coleman, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Sophie OkonedoDirector: Menno Meyjes
Brand: NEW Line Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-12
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: New Line Cinema
Product features:
- After decades of playing single men in romantic comedies from theic SAY ANYTHING to the critical favorite HIGH FIDELITY, the year 2007 marks a change for John Cusack. With roles as fathers in 1408, GRACE IS GONE, and MARTIAN CHILD, the beloved actor grows up and deserves some of the highest praise of his career. In MARTIAN CHILD, David Gordon (Cusack) is a successful science fiction author, plague
DVD Reviews of Martian Child
DVD Review: Were you expecting About A Boy meets K-Pax? ...
Summary: 2 Stars
The movie starts off, as expected with a soft narration by Cusack about the reality of his mundane life and how he was changed by the true events that the reader/viewer is about to see, it's not quite clear which. But this narration and slow pan to Cusack in a director's chair is not an introduction to this film, but possibly an interview to another film in the fictitious realm of the movie. Okay, is this the best way to start a movie? I don't think so.
So let me stop right there.
The story, while `loosely based' on true accounts and at times heartfelt, does initially come across as muddled, confused and without a real direction. The tone is supposed to be that light feeling that you might've experienced when you watched Notting Hill or About a Boy, two very decent `movies' played deftly by Hugh Grant. Now, here again we seem to have to indomitable John Cusack following the stylist coat-tails of Grant, to deliver up this strange and camp tale about a widower and his adopted son. But somewhere, the filmmakers decided that an intermittent narration is better than a full narration. Note to Menno Meyjes: "If you're going to include a narration in the movie, include it. Half-measures never bear much fruit, and what fruit there is, is usually rotten."
I was moved once or twice while watching this, a sense of awe is created in the film that keeps you close, but sadly, it never really delivers. The real drag is when you find out that the boy is not from Mars, but it's just a ruse he employs because of personal and social detachment and Cusack, ahem ... David, does his best to placate the boy and keep him under the radar of Child Protective Services and give him a normal life, despite what he's been through. Some of the acting is very forgettable and lacking the type of angst that you would've expected from both of these actors, Cusack and Bobby Coleman.
The movie comes off as simple and blasé and the selling point or theme just doesn't sit, gel or come together appropriately. Isn't Bobby Coleman the fictitious name of Corey Feldman in that movie `Dream a Little Dream' when he takes over Jason Robards' body? No matter. I digress. Sorry for the segue way.
Now, I've discussed bad and trite endings in other reviews that should always be avoided. Now it seems that I'll have to put `runs away to a planetarium' on the list of these no-no's because what could've been a decent film, is spoiled by the `climax' at the end where the boy does his best to sabotage his human existence with his new father David Gerrold and brings the heat of the law down on him. Joan Cusack does her best job interview for future Disney movies by standing next to Amanda Peet, feigning concern for the camera about a boy who might plunge from a height.
Maybe I was expecting something a little along the lines of K-Pax. But, maybe if it went that direction everyone would've complained that it was too much like K-Pax. Perhaps a stronger marketing campaign for this movie and getting the message out there about it being a `true story' would've helped audience expectation. The cover of this DVD is a good example of the poor strategy that went into this project overall. It looks like an eighties Wham! poster that a tween-age girl might hang on her wall, not the poster for a dramatic film about adoption, detachment, emotional growth and bonding. Good lord, people. Could you have hashed this thing up any worse?
And regarding the issue about David Gerrold being a gay, single father in real-life and this issue being ignored on-screen, just comes across as incredibly lame. At least Robin Williams had the guts to portray Armistead Maupin in The Night Listener and let the audience know what the real truth was with his character. Glassing over this minor point smacks of 'political correctness'. A black mark for sure on Cusack's record.
Description of Martian Child
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